Network Rail is investing the cash to replace 5,000 yards of ageing track between Silecroft and Bootle in West Cumbria to provide smoother, faster and more reliable journeys for passengers. This means that over the next six Sundays, buses will replace trains between Whitehaven and Millom while the railway is closed for the work. Eight mid-week nights, when trains aren’t running, will also be used to complete the upgrade.

IN HIS article on the burial of nuclear waste in ‘an atomic dustbin’, the Mail’s environment correspondent Colin Fernandez writes: ‘To provide an incentive to hosting the dumping ground, the selected area will be given between £1 million and £2.5 million a year for community projects.’ Though this financial offer by the Government has been dismissed as a bribe by campaigners in communities that fear they may be chosen, it would provide a measure of compensation. But ministers have refused to offer similar danger money to communities along the possibly extensive transport routes from the current location of the radioactive waste, to a facility where it would be processed, and then on to the deep underground disposal facility.

A row erupted last week on whether or not Midlothian should remain a member of Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA). SNP councillor Joe Wallace had asked officers in August to ascertain whether or not Midlothian Council was a member. It was reported at last week’s full council meeting that Midlothian was a member and council had discussed its representation on the group in June 2017. The Conservatives last week questioned the cost of being a member, which in the current financial year is £1340. Councillor Andrew Hardie, who raised a motion to leave the NFLA which was then defeated, said: “It seems to be a waste of the limited resources we have. It doesn’t seem to have achieved anything.

The future of nuclear energy depends on the industry’s readiness to address the seven factors influencing its prospects, the deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told delegates at the World Nuclear Association Symposium 2018 held in London last week. These are safety; funding and financing; electricity markets and nuclear policies; innovation (advanced reactors and fuel cycles); waste management; capacity building; and public acceptance. He said he wanted to highlight the way these factors will determine whether future developments will be closer to the IAEA’s low or high projections.

Anti-nuclear protesters from across the Highlands gathered in Inverness to stage a “peaceful protest” against the transportation of nuclear waste along the far north line. More than a dozen campaigners from Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT) and Cromarty Peace Group (CPG) joined together outside Inverness Train Station to showcase their objections in the movement of radioactive waste from Dounreay in Caithness to Sellafield in England. Protestors camped outside the doors of the city train station for almost an hour holding up a number of banners highlighting the dangers they claim are being imposed on the region. During the demonstration, members of the public were also offered the opportunity to sign postcards containing a petition to the UK Government demanding the halting of all nuclear transport across the north.

Dozens of anti-nuclear campaigners from across the north are to descend in Inverness tomorrow in protest over the transportation of radioactive waste from Dounreay in Caithness through the city en-route to Sellafield in England. Campaigners from both Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT) and Cromarty Peace Group (CPG) will join forces at the city’s train station to highlight the dangers they claim are being imposed to the region. The demonstration, taking place from 10am, comes just one month after a train carrying nuclear waste skipped a red signal near Kingussie as the Caledonian Sleeper service was heading north. HANT chairman Tor Justad said the incident “should concern everyone in Scotland.” Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey MP Drew Hendry echoed his sentiments, claiming it was completely unacceptable. He welcomed the news that residents across the region were continuing to take a strong stance on the matter. He said: “Disappointingly, the incident at Kingussie reaffirms the dangers of operating nuclear facilities and moving toxic nuclear waste through communities, and for DRS to say that there was no risk is simply not acceptable.

In the very early hours of Sunday, July 29, the federal government carried out a highly secretive transport of spent nuclear fuel. Helicopters and hundreds of police accompanied trucks from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology’s reactor at Lucas Heights to Port Kembla in Wollongong. The spent fuel was loaded onto the BBC Austria, owned by Briese Schiffahrt, a shipping line condemned across the world for dangerous and illegal practices. The cargo is heading for the La Hague facility in France to be reprocessed, with a contractual agreement for waste generated from this process to be sent back to Australia. Any transportation of nuclear materials carries risks, but Briese has a particularly terrible safety record, including leaking oil from vessels, losing cargo overboard and failing to follow basic navigation rules. In 2015, French nuclear giant Areva (now Orano) chartered the controversial Briese ship BBC Shanghai to bring reprocessed spent fuel waste back to Australia. This was despite the ship having recently been detained in Australia and Spain, and banned from carrying government cargo in the United States, for failing safety inspections.

A WORKER at Hinkley Point B power station has just become the first ever female nuclear fuel flask transporter driver in the country. Liz Dunn, who is employed by Workplace Solutions, has worked at the EDF Energy site for six years. She achieved this unique accolade after replying to a vacancy advertised on an internal notice board and in doing so, she has fulfilled a lifelong dream. “I have been interested in large lorries and vehicles since I was a child,” said Liz, who lives in Bridgwater.

Police Scotland is expecting a £4 million windfall from external organisations for protecting nuclear waste shipments and policing sporting events. The force has made almost £1 million this year so far for providing logistical support for nuclear waste transfers and policing football matches. The ongoing logistical support — known as Operation Ailey — is understood to involve traffic management and public order protection for nuclear waste travelling from the decommissioned Dounreay nuclear plant for reprocessing at Sellafield in Cumbria.

Researchers sent a nuclear waste container on a 14,500-mile odyssey by truck, barge, cargo ship, and train in an effort to understand how well radioactive fuel would stand up to travel. That’s important to find out because one day, the goal is to store all the radioactive fuel that’s used up and spit out by nuclear power plants in the US at a central, underground repository. There’s still a political struggle over where that repository will be, so right now, spent nuclear fuel doesn’t move much around the US. It mostly sits in storage at nuclear power plants or sometimes travels between power plants owned by the same company, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the government agency that oversees the nuclear industry.

Gov thinking seems to have finally caught up with reality - main question is not how best to make the taxpayer cough up for new nuclear. No justification for spending our money on outdated technology when renewables cheaper, quicker to build and cleaner.
https://t.co/PpeTfaBNpA

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